In the first week of April I spent four nights in Addo. I'd been to Addo before so I knew what to expect: lots of elephants, kudu and wharthogs and maybe a lion sighting. I also hoped to see black rhino at the waterhole as postings on this forum seem to indicate that they are regular visitors to the waterhole at night. I also had a faint hope of seeing a Caracal as Peter Betts and other forumites have had good sightings of Caracal in the park.

Let me start by saying that the sightings that I had in Addo this trip have far exceded my hopes and expectations. I've had a number of excellent sightings of two male lions, black rhino at the waterhole on two occasions, black rhino during the daytime next to the road, a good sighting of meerkats and a sighting of a caracal.

Thanks for the kind comments on the lion shot. To be honest I wouldn't have thought it possible to have such an excellent lion sighting in Addo. Talking about great sightings, here's a couple from a black rhino sighting we had two days later.

Here's some more pics from my lion sightings and one hyaena picture. The male lions are Nossob and Kalahari (at least that's what I've been told). They had a bit of a dispute a couple of days earlier and that is how the one lion (Nossob) hurt his nose.

I must admit that my sightings this time were very, very good. To increase your chances of good sightings enter the park the moment the gates open. The earlier you drive the better your chances are of seeing lion, caracal and hyaena. In the daytime you'll see lots of elephants and buffalo but to see the cats you have to get up early. All of our major sightings, except the meercats, were early in the morning...

The male lions you photographed are Nossob and Bitterbal. They had a fight with Kalahari and Tsama close to the turn off from the main camp road towards Domkrag. One of the game drive guides saw all four of them there the one morning and then a researcher saw Nossob and Bitterbal there the following night with the new injuries to Nossob.

I've been busy with all kinds of things the last couple of weeks but editing my pictures was unfortunately not one of these things I've finally found some time to continue sorting through my Addo pictures so here is a new installment!

For me Hapoor waterhole is one of the best places in South Africa to photograph elephants. This trip Hapoor did not disappoint. Each morning around 10am herd after of herd of elephants came to drink at Hapoor. Here's a compilation of images made at Hapoor waterhole over a period of three days.